by Mark Speck

The decade of the 1970’s was a unique, fascinating, depressing and exciting period all at the same time. It was a turbulent time that saw many history-making events, and some wild and crazy fads and fashions come and go. A lot of things associated with the 1970s, such as bell bottom, leisure suits, Jimmy Hoffa, pet rocks, lava lamps, mood rings, Nehru jackets, and disco, music, didn’t survive that turbulent decade. Neither did the World Football League. Just as the decade itself, the WFL was at once unique, fascinating, depressing, and exciting. It was a slick, mod, hip alternative to the established entity, the National Football League. It featured the Dickerrod, King Corcoran, bouncing checks, yellow footballs, court orders, magenta and orange uniforms, color-coded pants, Papergate, and singular team nicknames that one scribe said made the WFL sound more like a listing of Indian folklore than a football league. But, also like the decade itself, while the league did not survive the 70s, the wild, zany and hailariously true stories associated with the WFL survive to this day. It has never ceased to amaze and entertain. As Alex Hawkins, color commentator to the WFL’s Game of the Week broadcasts so aptly said, “The whole thing was so bizarre that you just had to love it.

All of these stories have been chronicled in “WIFFLE”, a book that can be best described as a 50-yard-line ticket to a real-life Theater of the Absurd.

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Mark Speck has been researching professional football for over 20 years and is the author of numerous articles on the subject. He was co-author with Tod Maher of the World Football League Encyclopedia and has worked on several other football encyclopedias, as well as the official WFL website.